I’m sitting on a tufted leather sofa, rocking a maroon silken jacket while puffing contentedly from a bespoke corncob pipe. To my left, a spherical ice cube melts slowly inside a Baccarat tumbler resting easily within reach upon a varnished teak end table. To my right, a refurbished gramophone plays a grooving, instantly captivating tune. I ease over in embroidered loafers, pawing through veils of thick smoke, and peer down to uncover the source of such oil-smooth sound…
Reverie snapped. Let’s get to it.
Dedicated readers of Everything Is Noise might recall Berlin’s 3 South & Banana, the brainchild of French singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Aurélien Bernard. When we premiered a single off the project’s eponymous debut record last time around, my colleague Holly spoke to the track’s danceability, dreamy synths, and ‘supernatural’ melodies. She also highlighted the delicate balance Bernard strikes between catchiness and oddness, concepts I noticed the instant I clicked the embed.
Bernard, whose stellar report card includes stints in art pop group Cairobi and the Blue Man Group (yes, that one!), succeeds at writing toe-tapping ditties whose laid-back soundscapes belie his seriously introspective nature and knack for surrealist storytelling. Today, we are honored to premiere a music video for 3 South & Banana‘s new single “The Fool The World”, out April 30 via Some Other Planet Records.
True to form, “The Fool The World” is a jaunty and psychedelic affair. Bernard’s gentle croons harmonize sweetly with those of guest vocalist Keel Her; combine that with a bouncy rhythm section, an amuse-bouche of saxophone, and guest Danalogue’s carnivalesque synth chords, and consider your replay button broken. The music video (directed by the multi-talented Bernard) boosts the song past the exosphere into even spacier territories, as artists in shadowy profile perform with considerable verve over a bright red backdrop. Groovy, I deem it.
Characteristically for Bernard, “The Fool The World” contains dense and thought-provoking thematic material. I’ll leave it to the artist himself to discuss the personal journey embedded within the lyrics:
‘This song is about the discovery of my feminine side through the Tarot. The ‘She’ in the song is the Anima, the unconscious feminine. I started learning and reading tarot for myself about 3 years ago. It’s Jodorowsky that inspired me to do so and later Jung’s work on Archetypes. This process with the cards is ultimately a way to connect with my intuition, my higher self. I spent most of my life repressing my feminine side. I understand now that I was conditioned this way by school, my family, my environment. It brought a lot of confusion and fear in me because there were a lot of things that I couldn’t understand with my rational mind. Fear to be vulnerable, fear of the unknown even fear of giving affection and love. This discovery was tremendous to me and also changed the relationship I have with women.’
Whether you appreciate “The Fool The World” for its crimson-tinged visuals, its shoulder bumping melodies, or its serious philosophical concerns, we can all agree that the track is, indeed, the perfect smoking lounge anthem. If Aurélien Bernard continues to pump out music that is this accessible, profound, and eminently replayable, he has at least one new fan. Stream “The Fool The World” everywhere upon release April 30 and keep up to date with 3 South & Banana at their website, Facebook, and label’s Bandcamp.
